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(CNN) -- Passengers on a Carnival cruise ship drifting in the Gulf of Mexico aren't getting the vacation they expected -- sleeping on its decks, making do with a few working toilets, and doing what they can to get food -- all due to a weekend engine fire left the vessel dead in the water.

The Carnival Triumph was about 150 miles off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, heading back Sunday morning to Galveston, Texas -- where it had departed Thursday on a four-day trip -- when a fire broke out in an engine room, according to Carnival Cruise Lines.

The ship's automatic fire extinguishing system kicked in and soon contained the flames, and no injuries were reported, Carnival reported.

Yet this fire left the ship -- and its 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew members -- adrift without propulsion, the cruise line said, halting its trip back to port.

I'm not real big on flying, either, since I haven't been on a plane since 1984. I have being enclosed with lots of people in small spaces. It's not the spaces or heights that make me uncomfortable, it's the people. Same thing applies to cruise ships.

I will fly on a plane if there is no other way to get somewhere, I just haven't had the money for international travel. Sooner or later, I will cash in my Aveda points for that free, 3 day stay at a spa in Antigua, which will involve flying or boating to get there.

I've never been on a cruise. I went out on a gambling ship once and felt like a prisoner. When people go on about cruises, they seem to relish the art of doing as little as possible while eating and drinking to excess.

I can see taking a ship as transportation, say from New York to England. That would have some appeal to an antique and genteel time. But gunkholing the Gulf or Caribbean doesn't appeal to me.

I've never been on a cruise. I went out on a gambling ship once and felt like a prisoner. When people go on about cruises, they seem to relish the art of doing as little as possible while eating and drinking to excess.

I can see taking a ship as transportation, say from New York to England. That would have some appeal to an antique and genteel time. But gunkholing the Gulf or Caribbean doesn't appeal to me.

Most cruise itineraries are carefully structured such that passengers have all (or at least most) of their daylight hours ashore in port, and then the ship moves at night. Other than trans-Atlantic cruises, very few itineraries have more than one day flatheading across the ocean, and most don't even have one day of that. So, generally, your daily routine aboard a cruise ship is get up in the morning, eat breakfast, and then walk down the gangway to go into town and/or go to some particular activity, usually have lunch in port, and then return in the late afternoon/evening, change clothes and go to dinner, and then there's usually numerous entertainment options after dinner: shows, casinos, some ships have movie theaters, pool, shuffleboard, whatever, and then go to bed, and when you wake up the next morning, you're already in the next port.

While a trans-Atlantic cruise sounds relaxing, particularly when compared to being shoe-horned into a 777 for nine hours to listen to 93db engine noise all night long, I think I would go stark raving mad being cooped up on a ship for six to ten days.

Most cruise itineraries are carefully structured such that passengers have all (or at least most) of their daylight hours ashore in port, and then the ship moves at night. Other than trans-Atlantic cruises, very few itineraries have more than one day flatheading across the ocean, and most don't even have one day of that. So, generally, your daily routine aboard a cruise ship is get up in the morning, eat breakfast, and then walk down the gangway to go into town and/or go to some particular activity, usually have lunch in port, and then return in the late afternoon/evening, change clothes and go to dinner, and then there's usually numerous entertainment options after dinner: shows, casinos, some ships have movie theaters, pool, shuffleboard, whatever, and then go to bed, and when you wake up the next morning, you're already in the next port.

While a trans-Atlantic cruise sounds relaxing, particularly when compared to being shoe-horned into a 777 for nine hours to listen to 93db engine noise all night long, I think I would go stark raving mad being cooped up on a ship for six to ten days.

I would take my nephew on condition that he pretend to be my proper English valet (Yes I said Valitt in my head) and we could stay in character the entire time.